Russ Briemeier of Christianity Today: “What does it all mean? With so many questions posed, a single interpretation of this album is virtually impossible…

Yet taken collectively, there is no ignoring the fact that spiritual themes are prevalent throughout the album. Viva La Vida seems to be about coping with death in a world corrupted by sin, temptation, and war. Though it never goes deeper than mentioning God or referencing a specific theology, the lyrics often yearn with hope and love for a better world—utopia or heaven, it’s up to your interpretation… Viva La Vida is often provocative, spiritual, and seemingly on the verge of identifying a greater Truth, asking and inspiring many questions without providing the answers.”

The Spiritual Search for the Afterlife

Many of Coldplay’s latest songs mention God and other Biblical themes such as dealing with death, and the afterlife and the shortness of life.  It seems to me that Coldplay has focused on spiritual issues in their lyrics but they are still in the process of working out all the answers and still formulating their religious belief systems. Here is a sample of their latest works:

In the song “Glass of Water”:

Oh he said you could see a future,
inside a glass of water,
With riddles and the rhymes
He asked ‘Will I see heaven in mine’
Ooooh, oooh, ooooh …

Possibly searching for the path to Heaven or hoping after death heaven is the destination. It reminds me also of the song “42” that says, “You thought you might be a ghost, You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close.”

The Search for the Meaning of Life

In the song “Now my feet  won’t touch the ground”:

Now my head won’t stop
You wait a lifetime to be found

Could it be a way of saying that God is searching for you in a sense? In the context of the rest of the album that may not be such a bad interpretation.

The song “42” states,

Those who are dead are not dead
They’re just living my head
And since I fell for that spell
I am living there as well…

Time is so short and I’m sure
There must be something more

This is the same question that Solomon asked 3000 years ago in the Book of Ecclesiastes.  He knew there was something more even though he was living the life of a very rich powerful King of Israel. The Christian Philosopher Francis Schaeffer noted that Solomon took a look in Ecclesiastes at the meaning of life on the basis of human life standing alone between birth and death “under the sun.” This phrase UNDER THE SUN appears over and over in Ecclesiastes. The Christian Scholar Ravi Zacharias noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term UNDER THE SUN — What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system and you are left with only this world of Time plus Chance plus matter.”

Solomon had all the resources in the world and he found himself searching for meaning of life and trying to come up with answers concerning the afterlife. However, it seems every door he tries to open is locked. Solomon found  riches (Ecclesiastes 2:8-11), pleasure (2:1), education (2:3) and his work (2:4) all meaningless and “a chasing of the wind.” None of those were able to “fill the God-sized vacuum in his heart” (quote from famous mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal). That reminds me of the Coldplay’s words in the song “Lost”: “Every river that I tried to cross, Every door I ever tried was locked.”

Moreover, what looms over Solomon’s search for the meaning of life is his upcoming death. In the song, “The Escapist,” which shares tract 10 with the song  “Death and all his Friends,” Coldplay notes:

And in the end
We lie awake
And we dream
We’ll make an escape

Is this an escape from Death? The song states “In the End.” Does that mean the very end of our life?  Since this song follows the song “Death and All his Friends,” it seems that would be the case.

Death and the time cycle

Over and over in Coldplay’s latest music you see the theme of death and the time cycle brought up concerning the shortness of a person’s life. Earlier I quoted the song “42” that states “Life is so short” and in the song “Life in Technicolor II” (Prospekt March) : “Time came a creeping, Oh and time’s a loaded gun.”  Even more than this do you see death mentioned. The song “42” which I quoted earlier said, “Those who are dead” and the song “Poppyfields” (from Prospekt March) states, “People burying their dead” and later says, “I don’t wanna die on my own in a separate sky.” The song “Violet Hill” states, “When I’m dead and hit the ground.” Needless to say I do not even have to mention that other songs like “Death and All his Friends”and “Cemeteries of London” also deal with death.

Life experiences shaped Coldplay’s latest lyrics

Where did all this talk about death come from? Chris Martin said in an interview shortly after the release of the album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends that the title came from the band’s life experiences which included some losses of life of close family members. Solomon rightly noted, (in Ecclesiastes 7:2-4) “It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should think about it while there is still time.  Sorrow is better than laughter; it may sadden your face, but it sharpens your understanding. A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.”

Furthermore, Solomon had to grapple with the fact of his own upcoming death. “I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!  Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.  For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:18-21).

The Two Conclusions of those who Deny Afterlife

Everything is dust in the wind

In 1978 I heard the song “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.  That song told me that Kerry Livgren the writer of that song and a member of Kansas had come to the conclusion that life  without God in the picture was like dust in the wind which was exactly what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes when he talked about life “under the sun.”  In fact, in the verses I just listed (3:18-21) Solomon says we are all returning to the dust and there is no reason to think we are going any where else with God out of the picture. Take a look at what Kerry Livgren wrote back in 1978:

DUST IN THE WIND
Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind

Now
Don’t hang on
Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky
It slips away
And all your money won’t another minute buy…

Everything is dust in the wind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbdP7sq0w8 (Dust in the Wind)

However, Kerry Livgren’s God-given conscience told him that God did exist and he eventually found Christ after first trying some Eastern Religions. I remember telling my friends in 1978 when “Dust in the Wind” was the number 6 song in the USA that Kansas had written a philosophical song that came to the same conclusion about humanistic man as Solomon did so long ago and I predicted that some members of that band would come to know the Christ of the Bible in a personal way. Livgren noted that when he wrote DUST IN THE WIND “I was writing about a yearning emptiness that I felt that millions of people obviously identified with because the song was very popular.” You can hear Kerry Livgren’s story from this youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4hrSRfd3wg  (part 1 10 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu1HrqBrpCY  (part 2 10 minutes)

Power reigns in this life and the scales are not balanced.

Solomon comes to the realization that powers reigns in this life and the scales are not balanced. Solomon notes, “Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless. (Ecclesiastes 4:1).

People that believe there is no afterlife must concede that Hitler will never face the due punishment for his acts. Chris Martin is a big Woody Allen movie fan like I am and no other movie better demonstrates Ecclesiastes 4:1 better than the movie CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS because the character Judah was able to get away with murder and in the end of the movie does not fear that God will punish him.  However, in the song “Viva La Vida” the evil king DID NOT MAKE IT TO HEAVEN. “I used to rule the world…Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes…there was never an honest word and that was when I ruled the world, It was the wicked and wild wind, Blew down the doors to let me in, Shattered windows and the sound of drums, People couldn’t believe what I’d become.” Later in the song, “For some reason I can’t explain, I KNOW SAINT PETER WON’T CALL MY NAME, Never an honest word, But that was when I ruled the world.”

This last part indicates to me that Coldplay realizes that evil individuals will be judged in an afterlife. This is a direct result of our God-given conscience that tells us that there is an afterlife and God will bring evil kings into judgement.

God reveals Himself in two Ways

Through the Created World and God-given Conscience

Lets take a look at the lyrics from the song “Cemeteries of London:”

God is in the houses
And God is in my head
And all the cemeteries of London
I see God come in my garden
But I don’t know what He said
For my heart, it wasn’t open
Not open

In the Bible Romans chapter one clearly points out that God has revealed Himself through both the created world around us  and also in a God-given conscience that testifies to each person that God exists.
Notice in this song that the song writer notes, “I see God come in my garden” and “God is in my head.” These are the exact two places mentioned by the scripture.  Romans 1:18-20 (Amplified version)

18For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.

19For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.

20For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification].

I have shown what thought processes Solomon went through in Ecclesiastes and then compared them to the evident changes that are occurring with Coldplay. By the way, the final chapter of Ecclesiastes finishes with Solomon emphasizing that serving God is the only proper response of man. My prediction: I am hoping that Coldplay’s next album will also come to that same conclusion that Solomon came to concerning the meaning of life and man’s proper place in the universe in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

Suggestions to Anyone Seeking the Christ of the Bible

1. You may not have as much resources as Coldplay or Solomon but you can still start on a spiritual search for the afterlife. .

 A.  Go to the Grand Canyon and see if you can deny the outward witness of God’s handiwork that Romans 1 talks about and then we move to the God-given conscience that God gave all of us.  That leads me to the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “…{God} has planted eternity in the human heart…” Just as the song Cemeteries of London mentions God revealing Himself in both of these places, so does the Bible. I contend that Coldplay’s radical lyrical change is because they are relying on their God-given conscience when they look at this difficult subject of death and life. The next suggestion I want to mention really centers on this verse Ecclesiastes 3:11 and if you actually believe in the afterlife.

B.   Rent a dvd of the movie CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS by Woody Allen and see if you can answer this simple question: Do evil man like Hitler get off or will they be punished in an afterlife?

The 1989 movie Crimes and Misdemeanors by Woody Allen is  about a doctor who hires a killer to murder his mistress because she continually threatens to blow the whistle on his past questionable, probably illegal, business activities. Afterward he is haunted by guilt. His Jewish father had taught him that God sees all and will surely bring justice.

But the doctor’s crime is never discovered. Later in the film, Judah reflects on the conversation his father had with Judah’s unbelieving Aunt May at the dinner table many years ago:

“Come on Sol, open your eyes. Six million Jews burned to death by the Nazi’s, and they got away with it because might makes right,” says Aunt May.

Sol replies, “May, how did they get away with it?”

Judah asks, “If a man kills, then what?”

Sol responds to his son, “Then in one way or another he will be punished.”

Aunt May comments, “I say if he can do it and get away with it and he chooses not to be bothered by the ethics, then he is home free.”

Judah’s final conclusion was that might did make right. He observed that one day, because of this conclusion, he woke up and the cloud of guilt was gone. He was, as his aunt said, “home free.” The basic question Woody Allen is presenting to his own agnostic humanistic worldview is: IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE THERE IS NO GOD THERE TO PUNISH YOU IN AN AFTERLIFE, THEN WHY NOT MURDER IF YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT? Woody Allen has put up his own agnostic moral philosophy to the test and it has come up short. The secular humanist worldview that modern man has adopted does not work in the real world that God has created. Man knows inside himself through his inner consciencious (Romans 1:19) that God exists and will punish evil men like Hitler. You see that in the song Viva La Vida the evil king does not get into Heaven. It is true that Chris Martin grew up in a Christian home that believed in Heaven and Hell and Martin has since made statements indicating that he does not believe in Hell, but evidently at 3:45am in the morning when he wrote the song Viva La Vida he had to make sure that people knew that this evil king was going to be held accountable. This is a direct result of his God-given conscience.